Would Fox’s smash hit “Empire” earn the right to battle “Mad Men” for the Outstanding Drama Series Emmy? No, it would not.

Would the most popular comedy, “The Big Bang Theory,” dethrone “Modern Family” and deposit another trophy on Jim Parsons’ mantel? It won’t get a chance to do either.

How about some Emmy love at last for TV’s two highest-rated dramas, “The Walking Dead” and “NCIS”? No, and no.

The nominations for television’s most prestigious awards were announced Thursday, and the voters from the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences were quite clear on one point: Big ratings would have to be their own reward.

TV’s most popular shows, especially those on the big broadcast networks ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC, earned few nominations in the most prestigious categories.

Instead, the academy gave its stamp of approval to the likes of “Transparent” from Amazon, “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” from Netflix, Canadian actress Tatiana Maslany and “The Honorable Woman,” a British-made miniseries that aired on the Sundance channel.

The Emmy voters have been polishing their image for years, and 2015 makes the strongest statement yet that academy members are embracing television’s “new golden age” and rewarding artistic merit over populsim. This is clearly no longer the organization that named “The Practice” the best drama series. Twice.

Maslany’s nomination serves as the best example of that. She is the star of “Orphan Black,” a Canadian-made science fiction series that airs on BBC America to a small audience. Yet her work portraying an entire ensemble of characters (they’re clones) has drawn raves from critics and the show’s cult of fans.

It would have been easy for Emmy voters just to nominate last year’s winner, Julianna Margulies of “The Good Wife,” one more time. Instead, they honored a truly outstanding piece of work, even if many viewers haven’t watched it.

Many had seen “Empire” as a strong candidate for outstanding drama series because of its astonishing rise to the head of the ratings last winter, but the voters wisely decided that there were too many strong dramas to give a spot away to an over-the-top soap opera, no matter how popular.

For the fourth year in a row, PBS was the only broadcast network to land a nomination in the category, for “Downton Abbey.” That show, “Mad Men,” “Game of Thrones,” “Homeland” and “House of Cards” earned widely expected nominations, but the remaining two were surprises.

“Better Call Saul,” the prequel to last year’s winner, “Breaking Bad,” did not appear on many prognosticators’ lists, but it broke through thanks to strong writing and superb performances by Bob Odenkirk and Jonathan Banks, both of whom earned acting nominations.

“Orange Is the New Black” was thought to be doomed when the academy rules moved it from the comedy category, where it was a no-brainer nominee last year. But voters rewarded it anyway, making it the first series to be nominated in both categories.

The big-ratings broadcast shows weren’t entirely ignored.

The chances of the first African-American woman winning for lead actress in a drama took a huge leap with the nominations of Taraji P. Henson from “Empire” and Viola Davis from ABC’s “How to Get Away With Murder.” They are just the sixth and seventh black women to compete in the category.

Henson’s scenery-inhaling work as Cookie Lyon has made her the favorite to take the category, with Elisabeth Moss of “Mad Men” as the main competition.

The biggest story at the Sep. 20 awards ceremony figures to be just how much hardware “Mad Men” will take away.

“The Sopranos” and “Breaking Bad” both won the best drama awards in their final seasons, and “Mad Men” will be the heavy favorite to do the same. But will the show’s position as sentimental favorite extend to the actors?

“Mad Men” has never won a single acting Emmy, despite eight years of fine performances from the excellent cast. This year, Moss and Jon Hamm in the lead categories and Christine Hendricks as a supporting actress all have a chance to end that drought.

A win for “Mad Men” would be a record-breaking fifth, ending a tie with “Hill Street Blues,” “L.A. Law” and “The West Wing.”

Also in line for a record-smashing win is “Modern Family,” which would pull away from “Frasier” with its sixth outstanding comedy series Emmy.

But the outlook there is murky, at best. That “Modern Family” simply isn’t as funny as it used to be is a widely held opinion, and the competition – “Louie,” “Parks & Recreation,” “Silicon Valley,” “Transparent,” “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” and “Veep” – is deep.

Still, for all of the inroads cable and online shows have made in drama, the comedy series award has gone to a major broadcast network all but one year. (“Sex in the City” won in 2001.)

Even though the academy earns better marks overall for its choices, there were still some head-scratchers.

The entire slate of nominees for reality-competition series is questionable. The variety-talk category consists of the usual suspects.

And far too many acting nominations were handed out for reputation rather than accomplishment: Allison Janney (twice), Lily Tomlin, Jeff Daniels, and virtually the entire cast of “American Horror Story” were questionable, at best.

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